I might have to change my PMO Watch to P3O Watch after reading a recent article (based on a presentation at the International BPUG Congress) called “The New P3O Guidance from the Office of Government Commerce” [see the presentation notes (PDF).]
The P3O essentially means Portfolio, Programme and Project Office, and is focused on bringing the concept and model of “PMO” (I’m going to have to choose something to describe the current situation!) firmly on the agenda. Specifically, it looks like OGC would also like to get their hands on the PMO structure, function, etc., much like project management (PRINCE2) and programme management (Managing Successful Programmes).
Yes, you guessed it – a manual and accreditation will be coming down the line later this year (Autumn 2008). We’ll wait to see what all this means nearer the time but a few thoughts from the article:
- “Brand is all” – a great quote in relation to the PMO and its place within the organisation and the service it provides. Amazingly, still to this day when new PMOs are created within an organisation brand and specifically brand awareness are one of the last things to be planned and managed.
- “There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach” - yup, which has pretty much been the problem for many organisations. Will P3O be good enough to give scalable models? To give real guidance to leaders to understand the factors that effect their particular scenario and which elements of the P3O model to apply?
- Real solutions to real business problems? I have concerns that the P3O has come about due to the “alignment to OGC best practice” – does this mean the commercial world will be once again looking to the public sector as market leaders in project management thought? That we hear the same old line “Yeah, we have a P3O approach – we just took the best bits and created our own version”, when all it really means is: P1O i.e., “We have a Project Office”.
- From an employment market point of view – the accreditation will be interesting. How many project support professionals have the opportunity to work within a mature PM environment – where an established structure of portfolio management office, CoE and programme / project offices exist within their business and therefore gives them the opportunity to put into practice the P3O training programme and their “continuous professional development”. Chicken and egg situation definitely – trained P3O people with nowhere to exercise their abilities?
We wait with bated breath to see what happens next in the P3O journey……….
Article posted on OGC Best Management Practice
You can also read Arras People’s recruitment pages on P3O
